Hesperidin alleviates endothelial cell inflammation and apoptosis of
Kawasaki disease through inhibiting the TLR4/IĸBα/NF-ĸB pathway
Abstract
Kawasaki Disease (KD) is an acute and self-limiting vasculitis of
unknown etiology that mainly occurs in infancy and can lead to vascular
endothelial injury. Hesperidin (HES) is an economical dietary biological
flavonoid with anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic
pharmacological effects. The main objective of this study was to
investigate the protective effects of HES on KD, and try to elucidate
the underlying mechanism. The Candida albicans water-soluble fraction
(CAWS) was used to induce coronary arteritis of KD mouse model in vivo,
and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) was employed to induce human
umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) injury of KD cell model in vitro
to investigate the anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic effects of HES
on KD. Our in vivo results showed that HES significantly reduced
coronary artery injury in KD mice by alleviating pericoronary
inflammatory infiltration and tissue fibrosis, inhibiting inflammatory
cytokines and chemokines expressions, and decreasing vascular
endothelial cell apoptosis. Our in vitro study confirmed that HES had
the opposite ability of the NF-κB agonist NF-ĸB activator 1 (ACT1) to
significantly alleviate the inflammatory response, CellROX level, and
apoptosis by decreasing BAX/BCL-2 and Cleaved Caspase-3 levels as well
as reducing TUNEL positive cells and the ratio of flow cytometry
apoptotic cells in TNF-α induced HUVECs. The further mechanism study
based on bioinformatics analysis and western blot demonstrated that HES
could protect against vascular inflammation and cell apoptosis of KD
through inhibiting the TLR4/IĸBα/NF-ĸB pathway, suggesting that HES may
be a promising therapeutic candidate for KD.